A speculative book reflecting on design and architecture centred LARPs (Live Action Role-Play) organised by the Trojan Horse collective. The book is an exploration of Live Action Role-Play as a design and architecture research tool. By inviting the reader to try on different characters, switch roles and reconsider their everyday practices, the book aims to approach issues such as identity, performativity, gender, colonialism, care and fear in the context of architecture, design and urban planning.

Texts by Ana Yin Aiwen, Teo Ala-Ruona, Michael A. Fowler, Ott Kagovere, Kaisa Karvinen, Tommi Vasko.

Dear Friend is a monthly letter format publication covering design events, issues, and ideas. This publication distributed via snail mail is initiated by Sandra Nuut and Ott Kagovere.

The publication edited by Sandra Nuut & Ott Kagovere features all the letters from the Dear Friend publishing project, which they initiated at the Graphic Design Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2018. The book includes contributions by Singapore-based design writer Justin Zhuang, designer and writer Else Lagerspetz, and artist Lieven Lahaye. The book is designed by Ott Kagovere and published by Lugemik and Estonian Academy of Arts.

Texts by Justin Zhuang, Lieven Lahaye, Else Lagerspetz

Letters written by Alicia Ajayi, Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey, Claudia Doms, Nell Donkers, Maarin Ektermann, Rosen Eveleigh, Maryam Fanni, Saara Hannus, Eik Hermann, Paul John, Maria Juur, Ott Kagovere, Maarja Kangro, Arja Karhumaa, Kristina Ketola Bore, Nicole Killian, Rachel Kinbar, Tuomas Kortteinen, Keiu Krikmann, Kadri Laas, Else Lagerspetz, Lieven Lahaye, James Langdon, Jungmyung Lee, Kai Lobjakas, Michelle Millar Fisher, Maria Muuk, Sheere Ng, Sandra Nuut, Laura Pappa, Jack Self, Indrek Sirkel, Paul Soulellis, Triin Tamm, Laura Toots, Alice Twemlow, Loore Viires, Sean Yendrys, Justin Zhuang

"Short Term Eternity" brings together two artists – Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978, USA) and Anu Vahtra (1982, Estonia) – whose practices are related to each other in many ways, even if they are born in different times and locations. The aim of the book is not just to compare their work, but to describe the circling of ideas and strategies in the art world from a non-hierarchical perspective.

The book is published on the occasion of "Gordon Matta-Clark: Anarchitect. Anu Vahtra: Completion through removal", an exhibition in the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn, February 22 – June 8, 2019, organised in cooperation between the Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Kumu Art Museum, curated by Sergio Bessa, Jessamyn Fiore, and Anu Allas.

As a contrast to the large-scale installations in both Matta-Clark’s and Vahtra’s practice, the book is small in size. The content is printed on thin paper and is divided into three parts. It starts with Completion through removal, a series of photographs by Anu Vahtra showing the spatial intervention realised in the Great Hall in Kumu and ends with the illustrated script of Vahtra’s performance piece Open House Closing. A Walk. The middle section of the book includes three thoroughly illustrated essays, where the images are printed overleaf from the text and are only visible through the page in a gap in the text at their intended location. These gaps or cuts in the text refer to the empty space, characteristic for the practices of both Matta-Clark and Vahtra.

INTOURISM is the space of organised concentration, playing a story about how a man who has no identification documents travels the world. how he was banned from entering a country for life. how he’s got no clue what to do with that and then how he remembers nothing about it. it’s a tale of adventure, anything and everything he runs into during his travels. of course it’s meditative manipulation and a question of feeling; activation of inner civilisation by passion, by calming down or by nothing at all. the altering of text into a metaphor that defines man.

The play is published as two books, one in Estonian and one in English.

kadrinoormets: in december last year peeter rästas came to me with a proposal. the same evening I accepted it – we did not marry. I love rästas but not necessarily theatre – the same night I began to write, I prepared – the text ended up being dedicated to rästas. six months later I gave him a text set of a hundred to read and get to know – rästas wasn’t too excited about it, but I certainly was. rästas seemed sceptical, he approached it with the thespian distrust of abstract (body-)patterns within the formula of stagetext; in terms of understanding, of course. that distrust suited me, scepticism as sweet starting potential – I knew that it would pass – rästas hasn’t stopped.

Borrowing Positions: Role-Playing Design & Architecture is a speculative book which reflects on the design- and architecture-centred LARPs (Live Action Role-Plays) organized by the Trojan Horse collective. The book is an exploration of Live Action Role-Play as a design and architecture research tool. By inviting the reader to try on different characters, switch roles and reconsider their everyday practices, the book explores issues such as identity, performativity, gender, colonialism, care responsibilities and fear in the context of architecture, design and urban planning.

The book consists of three parts: an overview of previous LARPs and their theoretical background; reflections (essays, visual essays and interviews) on LARP-related issues; and a practical (DIY) section – a step-by-step guide on how to organize your own design LARP.

Contributors to the book vary from architecture and design practitioners to performance artists working with role-play and fiction. The book will be of interest to anyone interested in inderdisciplinary practices in design and architecture.